To provide quality transportation and distribution service for items that are delivered to a recipient, such as letters, magazines, packages, mail, goods, freight, and the like, (hereinafter, collectively, delivery items) a delivery or transportation service provider, (such as the U.S. Postal Service, the FedEx Company, the United Parcel Service company, another country's postal service, etc.), must create and maintain an organized integrated network for tracking the assets or equipment that is used to transport the delivery items, such as carts, pallets, vehicles, etc. Effective management of such networks provides lower cost, reduced delivery time, and enhanced customer service. Management of an integrated transportation network may include management of asset tracking infrastructure and logic, management of distribution, and management of information services supporting tracking and tracing of in-transit delivery items. Another important component of an integrated transportation network is proactive management of the transportation supply chain from receipt to delivery.
A service provider may collect real-time data related to in-transit tracking of delivery items by tracking containers, carts, and other assets that contain or move the delivery items. Continuous tracking of these assets may be significantly complicated when destination points and transportation routes do not remain the same, but instead change on a daily basis, even for delivery items inserted into a processing stream at the same origination point. Close real-time monitoring of delivery items in the transportation network allows a service provider to continuously evaluate performance of its transportation carriers, improve management of assets resulting in decreased transportation costs, and provide real-time location information to customers.